Disclaimer: I don't own Life with Derek.

Chapter 2--Close Encounters

That night, as Casey was brushing her teeth in the bathroom, Derek came in behind her.

"So . . ." he said, with an amused look on his face, "did you ever think of me as more than a step-brother?"

Casey spit her toothpaste all over the mirror and gave him a disbelieving glare. How could he even ask her something like that?

"Oh come on, Case," he said, "I'll admit that I found you half way attractive when we first met . . . until you opened your mouth."

Casey just rolled her eyes at him and went back to brushing her teeth.

"So," he pressed, inclining his head toward her and looking cocky, "do you ever think of me that way?"

"No," she said curtly, after spitting the rest of her toothpaste into the sink.

"Oh, please," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder, "you're such a bad liar."

Shirking off his arm, she rolled her eyes at him again, and walked out of the bathroom.

"You know you want me!" he called after her.

"In your dreams, Derek," she called back, not bothering to turn back toward him.

The next day, the comments started.

"Der-ek!" she had yelled, as her Mom and George were preparing breakfast for her younger siblings. "You threw you're sweaty hockey jersey in with the whites again!"

With an expression on of disgust on her face, she picked the smelly shirt out of the laundry basket and dropped on the counter next to where he was eating.

"Oh come on, Case," he smirked, "you know that you want your 'delicates' to smell like me."

Casey shot him a look of disgust.

"Casey just doesn't want to admit that she wants the D-man," he told Edwin, who raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Casey glared icily, Nora sighed as she scrapped the burnt pieces off a slice of toast, and George rolled his eyes realizing what he had started.

From there, things only got worse.

When Derek got home from work that afternoon she was on the couch, trying to find something to watch on TV. Instead of sitting in his usual chair, he surprised her by sitting down beside her.

She was aware of how strangely close he was, and at first, he just sat there staring at her while she flipped through the channels.

After nearly a minute he leaned in toward her, and after giving her his trademark smirked, whispered, "We both know what you'd really like to be doing on this couch."

"And what's that, Derek?" she replied snidely, not quite sure what he was trying to get at.

She noticed a hint of nervousness in her own voice and hoped that Derek hadn't picked up on it.

He was smirking at her, and raising his eye brows, he motioned toward himself.

"Okay, Ew!" she exclaimed, getting his drift.

"No need to be ashamed, Case," he laughed. "Who could blame you for wanting this," he said, motioning toward himself again.

"Egotistical, much?" she glared.

"In denial much?" he shot back, laughing.

Rolling her eyes at him, she told him that she was going upstairs.

This could have definite advantages, he thought, quickly switching the channel to ESPN.

The next morning she was putting on her make-up, when she felt his body pressed up against hers and saw his reflection in the mirror giving her an amused look.

"Making yourself pretty for me, huh?" he whispered, reaching past her to grab a hairbrush and leaving the room before she had time to recover.

It went on like this. He would position himself abnormally close to her, hit her with some sort of comment, and walk off smirking to himself, leaving Casey visibly fuming.

It was like he was trying to get her to admit that she'd thought about him.

One time he wrapped his arms around her waist as she was washing the dishes. Casey had let out an inadvertent gasp, and this had seemed to give him a bizarre pleasure.

In spite or herself, she was beginning to find these encounters strangely exhilarating. Sometimes it would take all of her effort to suppress a shiver at the jolts of electricity that would run down her spine.

But Casey was not about to admit that. She would not give Derek that satisfaction of giving into his teasing or responding in the way that he clearly wanted her to.

He was just behaving like an immature, asinine jerk.

At first these incidents were confined to their home, but then Derek made the mistake of making some of these remarks in public . . .